Different sources for a Hotel Reservation
Hotel reservation is blocking a room type for a particular guest for some time.
You can also make reservation in advance to ensure you stay in the room at your comfort and budget.
Hotels accept bookings in advance to maximize occupancy and generate more revenues.
There are various sources of reservation from where reservation reaches from guests to the particular hotels.
Traditionally, hotel reservation was not an easy task for the hotel’s staff.
But with new channels/sources, it simplifies the booking process and reduces the chances of errors.
Channels or sources of reservation are listed below.
Property direct for hotel reservation
When a hotel accepts a booking order directly from a guest without a mediator, it is called a direct reservation.
In this, the entire booking process is between guests and hotelier and no one is acting as a mediator between them.
Person or group of people have to directly book through the hotel website using its booking engine and no aggregator company is involved.
Online Travel Agencies for hotel reservation
OTAs are online businesses whose websites allow consumers to book specific travel-related services directly via the Internet.
They are third party agents who sell hotels provided by others. Many guests book a room through travel agents.
That’s why it is important for hotels to lists them in various Online Travel Agencies to increase their exposure in the market.
So, there are better chances for them to get more bookings online.
Corporate Houses for hotel reservation
Companies and Corporate houses are given several exclusive contact rates depending on the number of business they provide.
While these companies and corporate houses are giving businesses in bulk hotels, hoteliers are offering them low rates.
Hotel Sales and marketing representatives
You can also reserve the hotel of your choice from that hotel sales representatives.
Many hospitality properties have their sales representatives who approach various market segments and work with advertising agencies.
They are doing so to maximize the revenue of the hotel by improving occupancy of the hotel.
The representatives will be responsible for organizing promotions and advertising campaigns to meet guests desires.
And working closely with other hotel personnel to ensure guests are happy with their services and their stay there.
Central Reservation System for hotel reservation
Central Reservation System is s system based reservation system, which allows prospective guests to book at any of the properties in a single chain.
It’s office deals with direct guests, travel agents, etc with the use of toll-free numbers 24/7.
In Central Reservation System there are fewer chances of mistakes in the booking.
As it does not allow two guests to book the same room at the same time.
If rooms are not available then booking assistant guide reservation to the property of the member hotels.
It efficiently distributes hotel rooms in several Online Travel Agencies and thus it is easily manageable.
Also is economical for guests because reservations through it are free from commissions, thus attract more guests.
Meta Reservation System
It is not a search engine it is a web portal.
Meta-search engines are a database repository which it gathers from the entire search engine.
Hence, any time you enter your search query as a user, it compiles all of the data and provides the answers relevant to your search.
The metasearch platform helps travellers to match and compare hotel prices from various online travel agencies ( OTAs) and other reservation pages, all at one place.
On clicking an option, they will be taken to the specific website to complete their reservation.
Global Distribution System
It is a computerized reservation system which is a single point of access for booking rooms of a hotel and other travel-related bookings.
It gives details about the product and its prices to travel agencies and online booking engines and permit automated transactions.
With the help of channel manager, current rates and availability of room are sent from a hotel Property Management System to Global Distribution System and online booking websites.
So, when user reserve room(s) of the hotel on the Global Distribution System or other online booking sites.
Thus, channel manager reduces that number of the room from all channels including its website.
Eventually, provides the reservation details back into the Property Management System or Central Reservation System.
Offline Bookings
Many guests book a room in the hotel by just walking-in into the hotel without searching about it online.
In this type of boking manual intervention is done.
Other ways to book a room through offline bookings by calling or sending email for enquiring about a hotel and its rates.
There are many ways in which a client can quickly and conveniently book a hotel room.
But for hotel staff, it increases their workload and makes the whole hotel booking process very complicated and more prone to errors.
Thus, to eliminate errors and making the booking process simpler, hoteliers are using hotel reservation software.
QloApps
If you are looking for a Hotel Reservation System which can manage both your online and offline booking then you can opt for QloApps.
Manage offline booking very efficiently with the help of QloApps.
QloApps online booking system is one place for managing all your online and offline hotel booking.
Admin can take the on desk booking form the back-end of QloApps.
When a guest walks in the hotel without the booking.
And demands a hotel room then you do not have to do a manual entry or depend on any other system.
In QloApps you have the option to reserve the room for the guest for his desired date range.
Conclusion
As we can see that there are various sources of hotel reservation.
Further, it reservation is through both online and offline sources.
Online sources are property direct, online travel agencies, corporate houses, central reservation system and many more.
With online sources, you can easily track the sources from where leads come from.
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If you want to learn about the functionality of QloApps then you can visit this link: QLO Reservation System – Free Open-Source Hotel Booking & Reservation System
In case of any query, issue or requirement please feel free to raise it on QloApps Forum